HP tapped as technology provider and systems integrator for UNICA, the basis of Telefónica’s global NFV and SDN strategy.

March 3, 2015

2 Min Read

BARCELONA, Spain, March 3, 2015—At Mobile World Congress Telefónica and HP today announced that the telecommunications company has selected HP as the technology provider and systems integrator of the Telefónica Virtualization Infrastructure (project UNICA). Telefónica will implement the end-to-end HP OpenNFV platform stack, including server, software, orchestration and networking technologies, carrier grade HP Helion OpenStack technology, services and expertise.

The Telefónica UNICA initiative marks a paradigm shift in the way telco networks are designed and installed using existing virtualization technologies. UNICA is focused on extracting maximum benefits from network functions virtualization (NFV), software defined networking (SDN), and cloud technologies. It involves moving from proprietary “vertical” silos to an open, unified “horizontal” architecture, bringing in the future improved centralized management and orchestration (MANO) capabilities and shared hardware resources across services, dramatically reducing operating costs.

“For Telefonica, UNICA is just the first step for a wide and ambitious vision which results in the best experience for our customers. We are starting here with HP, not just a new way to deploy networks, even more, a new way to deploy services all based in cloud,” said Enrique Blanco, Global CTO of Telefónica.

NFV will make it quicker and easier for Telefónica to introduce and replicate new services and upgrade the network – upgrades will be possible in hours, even minutes, instead of months since services are not being tied to physical appliances.

Telefónica plans to follow a three-phase approach to implementing UNICA:

  1. Virtualize non-critical systems, such as AAA and IP Media Subsystem (IMS), deploying them as virtual network functions (VNFs)

  2. Transform to NFV core networks like virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) for LTE

  3. Virtualize critical systems like Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and Home Location Register (HLR)

A key requirement for network transformation through NFV is the shift from expensive, proprietary appliances to open, standards-based hardware. The HP OpenNFV platform is fully compatible with industry standard servers, storage and networking offerings, enabling higher flexibility at a lower cost for deploying and running telecommunications services.

HP Technology Communication and Media Solution experts in conjunction with Technology Services Consulting will help Telefónica prepare the current network infrastructure to adapt to the needs of the next generation services based on NFV and SDN technologies. HP Technology Services Consulting will work with Telefónica to establish the infrastructure designs to meet the performance and availability requirements of VNF, orchestration and carrier grade HP Helion OpenStack. In addition, HP will establish a presence in Madrid to support Telefónica’s network transformation and define a common strategy.

Telefónica will demonstrate certain services running over an end to end virtualized network, including selected VNFs running on UNICA Execution Environment, at Mobile World Congress 2015, March 2-5, Barcelona, in the Telefónica booth (Hall 3, Stand 3J20).

Telefónica

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